Surgical instrument storage and sterilization systems are known. These systems, sometimes referred to as surgical instrument trays or surgical instrument kits, typically consist of metal or plastic trays that hold a variety of general purpose and/or procedure specific surgical instruments such as forceps, scissors, clamps, retractors, scalpels, etc. These trays are brought into the operating room (OR) when preparing for surgery, and also are used as a means to organize, transport and store surgical instruments in a medical facility.
A primary function provided by surgical trays, in addition to storage, is to facilitate group sterilization. Sterilization is of paramount importance in a surgical setting such as a hospital to prevent potentially deadly infections to patients undergoing surgery. Prior to every surgical procedure, all surgical instruments and trays must be sterilized. Also, following each surgical procedure, all instruments on a given tray, if not wrapped separately, whether soiled or not, must be re-sterilized before subsequent usage. In order to increase the speed and efficiency of sterilization, entire surgical trays containing several instruments often are placed in a sterilization chamber at once. The sterilization chamber may provide any combination of heat, pressure, and/or fluid or vaporous sterilant to the trays and all the instruments contained therein. Sterilization techniques are well known. Thus, a detailed discussion of them has been intentionally omitted.
Because of the need to perform sterilization and the general need to maintain surgical instruments kits in good working order, they are often transported in and out of medical facilities through a distribution center for processing. For example, several surgical instrument kits may be picked up from a hospital or other medical facility at one time. In order to easily and efficiently transport the kits, several kits are placed in a single shipping tote. The shipping tote is a large bin, usually made of plastic or other durable, lightweight material that is able to securely hold two or more instrument kits inside. A worker then may load the shipping totes into a vehicle thereby reducing the number of manual operations that must be performed. Before transporting each shipping tote, a bar coded shipping label is sometimes prepared that identifies certain information such as the point of origin, the destination, and possibly the contents of the tote, i.e., the identification number of each surgical instrument tray contained in the tote. The bar coded label allows the tote to be easily and efficiently tracked and entered into inventory at the receiving facility. These labels are sometimes referred to as “airbills.”
Over time, and through ordinary usage, as well as due to rigors of the sterilization process, surgical instruments suffer wear and tear and eventually reach the end of their life cycle. Thus, it is necessary to periodically inspect and maintain records on usage of surgical instruments so that they can be replaced as necessary. Also, due to the fact that they are constantly moved from the operating room to sterilization, to storage through processing facilities, and back to the operating room, various instruments on a given tray may become lost. Because certain instruments are so specialized that there are no functional substitutes, it also has become necessary to regularly inspect trays for any missing instruments and to readily identify specific instruments that are missing. Existing methods for performing these necessary functions are overly reliant on costly human interpretation. Also, in some cases, a skilled technician may be required to identify missing instruments.
While bar code labels are effective for short durations under ordinary conditions, they are not effective as a means of identifying surgical instrument trays. Bar code labels could not withstand the environments that surgical instrument trays are subjected to. As a result, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have been proposed for tracking surgical instrument trays.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems use an RF field generator (reader) to wirelessly extract identification information (i.e., UPC, product name, etc.) contained in RFID transponder tags attached to various products and objects. RFID tags are miniature electronic circuits that typically consist of a coil that acts as an antenna and a small silicon-based microprocessor with a memory, all encapsulated in a protective material. RFID tags store identification information, usually in the form of an identification number that corresponds to an object or item to which the tag is attached. This number may be used to index a database containing price, product name, manufacture and/or other information. When a transponder tag enters an RF field generated by a reader device, the circuit of the tag becomes energized causing the processor to perform a data operation, usually by emitting a signal containing the processor's stored information. The basic structure and operation of RFID tags can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,075,632, 4,360,801, 4,390,880, 4,739,328 and 5,030,807, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Thus, there is a need for a control system that integrates bar code technology and RFID technology for processing surgical instrument shipping totes containing one or more instrument trays in a single process without emptying the tote to process each tray individually.
The description herein of various advantages and disadvantages associated with known apparatus, methods, and materials is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to their exclusion. Indeed, various embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the known apparatus, methods, and materials without suffering from their disadvantages.